This video will make you want to quit your job and move to Iceland

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Few countries look more alluring under the gaze of a drone than Iceland.

And a new film has captured the island’s raw beauty in an almost hypnotic light by battling the elements and shooting in the winter, with the country still asleep under a sheet of white.

Jökulsárlón, Iceland's glacier lagoonCredit:
Skies Untold

“Island”, by aerial video specialists Skies Untold, captures Iceland’s landscape in March as it nears spring but remains frozen after a long, cold winter. Taking in snow-covered lava fields, a number of Iceland’s renowned waterfalls and the shimmering glacier lagoon, Jökulsárlón, Island is enough to tempt any traveller to the northerly nation to become a permanent inhabitant.

“We have wanted to visit Iceland for some times,” said camera operator and editor Ina Krombholz. “Seeing it for the first time feels like stepping onto an alien planet that is still in the process of forming; the black sands, endless lava fields, jagged cliffs, waterfalls, glaciers and yellow green moss that carpets huge swathes of land.

An Icelandic horse braves the elementsCredit:
Skies Untold

“It feels raw and beautifully unfinished. What better place to film?”

The team behind the film were determined to capture the island over winter, but this meant allowing for a longer filming schedule.

“They really aren’t joking when they say the weather is entirely unpredictable in Iceland,” said Alex Hatfield, founder and head pilot at Skies Untold.

The team had some issues with the weather when it came to filming

“This made filming difficult and we weren’t able to shoot of a lot of the things we had planned prior to the trip.

“We stopped and filmed where and when we could, if the weather allowed. I'm sure these places have names, but a lot of the time they weren't signposted.

“Furthermore, due to Iceland’s latitude and ground make up, magnetic interference can prove to be problematic when flying drones. Gertrude has a digital compass which it uses to stabilise and orientate itself, and this would often fail, requiring sequences to be reshot or abandoned. However, we persevered throughout the shoot and I think the end results were more than worth the struggle.”